Regular Diet session convened
Consumption tax hike is the biggest focus
January 24, 2012, Tokyo, Japan - Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has a cordial moment before delivering his policy speech as the ordinary session of the Diet convenes in Tokyo on Tuesday, January 24, 2012. Deputy Premier Katsuya Okada is foreground.
Noda is expected to face a negotiation with the opposition camps on the passage of bills to raise the nation's sales tax from the current five percent to eight percent in April 2014 and the current five percent to eight percent in March 2013. The opposition bloc is taking a confrontational approach and stepping up efforts to dissolve the lower house for an (Photo by Natsuki Sakai/AFLO) AYF -mis-